With the fast changing world, the role of a classroom teacher also changes. Here lies the question who is the better teacher: he/she who taps the best in the students? Or he/she who relies on what the department is telling them? When will be the right learning come? Who is the most effective teacher of them all? Nowadays, we educators struggle for excellence. But are we becoming more effective because of this?
Ideally, the answer would be yes. But reality bites, there are humongous hurdles with these technologies we face. Lack of available resources is the main culprit. We often times invest by our own just to keep going with the rapids of this global competitiveness. And not all of us have the means to do this, sometimes not even our government can.
Yes, our learners become more interested to our lessons when we use technologies to catch their attentions. Yes, we make a great impression that we are beyond their expectations of just using the old school Manila paper to discuss our lesson for the day. Yes, we became more efficient.
But in the eyes of a learner, we must forget not the essentials of being a mentor. Apart from the cognitive level lies the emotional and spiritual side of our learners. They became who they should become not only because of the content we gave them but on how we dealt with them during the teaching-learning process.
It is on how we address each queries they ask. It is on how we crack jokes to make them smile while we give them the hardest topic to grasp. And it is sometimes the simple tap on their shoulder telling them that they can do better next time. Most importantly is the smile we give them as we enter the room just to spread the positivity that the todays lesson will be a meaningful and an enjoyable one.
Let us not be blinded alone by the gadgets and breakthroughs because we have more than we expect we have. It is the generation of learners that is needed to be communicated well and supported not only by new technologies but with the caring what a genuine concerned teacher can give.
By: Mr. Emmanuel N. Garcia | Teacher I | Mariveles National High School – Cabcaben
